The Life of Lily Rose Evans
by scaratthedisco
Summary: The story of Lily Evans, told in sixteen drabbles for each year of her life.


I.

January 31, 1960. Three thirty-seven in the afternoon. He has been pacing for the last four hours while his daughter looks up from her playthings every few minutes to watch her father. He casts a glance at her before continuing his pacing. He's worried about her. He's worried about his wife in there because he's supposed to stay out here with their eldest instead of being beside her. Their eldest at any time now, br

He hears a door open behind him. He turns to see one of the nurses there, beaming at him. "Mr. Evans, your daughter's been born."

II.  
>"It's your birthday. Do you know that? That means you're growing up, Lilybean. That means you're getting bigger and soon you can do all sorts of new things. They're going to give you a party and you're going to get loads of presents and be the center of attention. It's going to be your day! Birthdays are always fun. But you're growing up and someday you'll be like Mummy and me!"<p>

Petunia picks up her sister like her mother showed her, being sure to support her head carefully, and kisses her forehead. "Happy birthday, Lilybean." Little Lily doesn't even wake.

III.  
>"Look, Tuney! I'm a princess!"<p>

Lily spins around, her sparkling pink skirt flying out around her. She has a pair of navy shorts and a striped shirt on underneath and laughs when she almost falls over from being dizzy. Lily looks over her array of dress up clothing and picks up a bubble wand, spinning around with it. She laughs again. "Now I'm magic!"

Petunia teases her by pushing her crown down over her eyes. "Of course you are, Lilybean."

Lily spins again, falling back onto the grass and crying over her bruised elbow until her sister kisses it better.

IV.  
>"See how I did it, Lily? Try it like that."<p>

Lily adapts a look of concentration as she presses down on her crayon, trying to copy the letter her mother wrote. It comes out shaky but distinguishable. Her wobbly 'Lily' is written across the page, declaring that the picture of her house, mother, father, sister, and herself is hers.

"Mummy, look! It says Lily, see? Lily!" She points to the letters, trying to remember what they stood for. "That's an L, Mummy. My name starts with it. See?"

"It does!" her mother answers, pretending to look surprised at the discovery.

V.  
>"Come on, Tuney! We'll be late!"<p>

"Lily, we don't need to be there for another quarter of an hour. We'll be okay."

"But, Tuney!"

"Don't worry, Lily. I've never been late. We'll be fine, I promise."

Lily thinks this over and accepts it. Petunia's never wrong. She's her big sister and big sisters are supposed to be right. That's their job. "Tuney?"

"What, Lily?"

"What if no one likes me? Can I come to your class?"

Petunia stops and turns around, kneeling down to meet her sister at eye level. "Of course they'll like you, Lilybean. How could they not?"

VI.  
>"And which is that, Lils?" Her father points up into the clear night sky (a wonder for a place so close to London) and traces a constellation that is glittering down on them.<p>

Lily knows the answer right away. "Draco. That, Daddy?"

Every night that doesn't have too many clouds can find Benjamin Evans and his youngest daughter lying outside on the grass in their backyard. It's been the tradition since she was old enough to remember it vaguely, and Lily hopes it doesn't end just because she's going to school now and is getting to be a big girl.

VII.  
>"I'll race you, Tuney!" Lily declares, preparing herself for the run.<p>

Petunia is at least a foot taller than her, but she agrees to the challenge.

"Loser gets sodas!" Lily adds, stretching out her legs like she saw the guy on the telly do.

Petunia laughs. "Ready? Set. Go!"

The two set off and Petunia's longer legs could easily win it, but she slows down to let her sister pass. "You beat me again, Lily!" she says, a tone of teasing Lily won't catch in her voice.

"I want Cherry Coke," Lily answers with a smile, grabbing her sister's hand.

VIII.  
>"Tuney, higher!"<p>

"Lily, you're going to fall and hurt yourself!"

"Higher!" Lily tries to pump her legs, but she can't seem to get the swing to go any higher off the ground. Petunia doesn't make a move to push her. Lily already makes her nervous. She's just a little girl. She could get hurt and…

"I'm going to jump!" her younger sister exclaims happily.

Petunia's eyes widen and she responds immediately. "No, Lily!"

But she already has and lands safely on her feet. She should be hurt and crying from a jump that high.

"How?"

She laughs and tries again.

IX.  
>"You're a witch."<p>

She thinks over the words again, considering them in every way she can. She hopes that the witches Severus talks about are more like the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella. She's nice and likes to help people. Witch isn't a very nice word, though. That's what they call all the mean people in movies.

Witches can use magic, though, and magic is fun and pretty. So they can't be that bad, can they?

And Lily likes being nice and helping people. So she would be a good witch, wouldn't she?

She decides to ask Severus in the morning.

X.  
>"The demen-whats, Sev?"<p>

"The dementors. They guard Azkaban. That's the wizard prison. And they're pretty nasty. At least, that's what my Mum says. My Dad didn't go to Hogwarts. He's a muggle."

"Like Tuney?"

"Yeah. They just can't use magic."

Lily thinks about this for a minute or so. "That's kind of mean. Why not? I bet Tuney would like Hogwarts. When we go, I'm going to bring her something. That way she knows I miss her while I'm gone."

Severus nods. He doesn't really understand how anyone could not like Hogwarts. It's away from home. It's better than home.

XI.  
>It's the day before she leaves and she's sure that she's forgotten something. Great. She's going to forget something important and not have it and she's going to be stuck at Hogwarts or miss the train and be left at the station until her parents think the year is over and come to pick her up again. She goes through her trunk again. She can't forget anything.<p>

"Bedtime, Lily!" her father calls from downstairs.

Something is going to go wrong. No one is going to like her; they'll tell her that she's not really a witch. She wants to cry.

XII.  
>"Don't worry," she assures him again, smiling over at him before scribbling something else down on her essay. "What did you say about bezoars again?"<p>

Severus looks at her, hoping that he can believe her. He doesn't want to worry about their friendship. They're going to be best friends forever. She promised. "They cure almost anything if swallowed," he answered, turning a page in the book they were sharing.

Lily tucked a few strands of red hair behind her ear, glancing at the book's page again. "Let's do charms after this. When I was at the lake with Riley today…"

XIII.  
>"And then I said…"<p>

"What time is it?" The placement of the sun in the sky is worrying her.

"Lily, I was in the middle of my story about what happened while you were gone today!"

"What time is it?" she demands again, a worried look crossing her face.

Riley sighs and digs through her bag to find an old watch. "Six… eleven. Why?" She looks up at her friend again. They were on their way to dinner.

"Shoot!" With that, Lily darts in the other direction. How could she forget about her meeting with Sev by the lake again?

XIV.  
>"Hey, Evans!"<p>

She didn't turn around.

"Evans!" he calls again, actually picking up his pace to reach her. The two girls are just walking down the corridor and she makes no move to purposely speed up. Maybe she just didn't hear him, he tells himself, ruffling his hair.

"Evans," he says again, falling into step beside her.

Lily turns to him as if he had interrupted something important. "What, Potter?"

The girl behind her suppresses laughter.

"Want to go to Hogsmeade with me?" James asks, running a hand through his hair.

She didn't even give the question a thought. "No."

XV.  
>Lily is silent, staring at the fire. Riley is concerned. The train leaves tomorrow. She hopes it leaves behind the bad memories of this year. Lily is stronger than she'll give herself credit for. It's been one hell of a year for her.<p>

"Lily? We should get some sleep before the ride home tomorrow." They do have to get up early in the morning.

Her friend nods vaguely, turning to look over the common room.

"Lily?"

Her friend looks over at her. "You don't think I'm a mudblood, do you, Rye?"

Riley smiles. "'Course not. I'm your best friend, remember?"

XVI.

She is ready to get back to school. The summer drags on like it's never going to end, and there doesn't seem to be a quick ending in site. Her homework was done within the first week of holidays, and Lily has never been more ready to go back to the normal routines of doing homework and prefect duties and making sure that Riley doesn't get herself killed or expelled.

Lily sighs and pumps her legs again to keep the swing moving. She's probably the only girl sitting alone on a swing on Friday night in all of Great Britain.

The curtain now opens to her seventh and final year.


End file.
